Pellegrini: It Wasn’t An Easy Win Against Palace

Despite his team's emphatic 4-0 bashing of Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists it was not an easy win against the Eagles.

Fabian Delph and David Silva scored a goal each, while Sergio Aguero helped himself to a brace as City moved back to the top of the Premier League table albeit temporarily until Sunday, at least, when Arsenal travel to the Britannia Stadium to play against Stoke City.

Leicester City who are also Premier League contenders and joint leaders with Arsenal were in action late Saturday evening against Aston Villa.

In his post match reaction, Pellegrini told BBC Sport it was a nervous wait before victory was assured:

"Was it comfortable? No because you never know in this game. The first half, the two goals gave us more space as they've had to go for the draw. That allowed us to use that space and score two more."

Pellegrini also admitted his team's midweek Premier League game, a 0-0 draw against Everton played a role in his selection for Saturday's game which saw Nigeria's Kelechi Iheanacho being handed a rare starting place.

"It was a start of two teams that played in midweek. We had to refresh the team as we had less than 72 hours and that is not enough to recover," the Chilean revealed.